Urvich - The Hidden Fortress

Last Sunday was a gorgeous warm October day and we thought it just the suitable day to go searching for the elusive Urvich fortress. Urvich was a medieval fortress during the Second Bulgarian kingdom, which was very important for the defense of Sofia (then Sredetz) and the last of the Bulgarian fortresses to fall under the Ottoman army.

Now the ruins of the walls, battle towers and churches lay scattered and overgrown with vegetation all over this part of the Lozen mountain.

A piece of battle tower, 7 m tall, still stands in the middle of nowhere amongst the thick vegetation on the hill:

Excavation works, still on going on the hill. The fortress is strategically situated in the cross-point of the three mountains near Sofia - Vitosha, Lozen and Plana.

The ruins of one of the medieval churches - St. Elias. The whole region was a mini-version of the holy mountain of Athos on Halkidiki in Greece - fortresses and churches and monasteries.

We also followed one of the paths, that leads to the still operating monastery of St. Nicolas:

And then we just walked along the path down in the forest by the river Iskar, so picturesque with the arcades of overhanging branches, that even my prosaic teenage son couldn't help but exclaim, that this place was so beautiful :))